vg10 delica review

[spydusse]

My cousin put a nice chip in his delica so he gave it to me to fix. I have never used vg10 and I know of a few spydies I like the designs of that sport this steel.I decided to take it to work to see how this steel holds up. The beginning of the day I had a few sales so just some moderate hemp twine cutting was done. Then the real test came when a customer came in and order some old boxwood. Their burlap had disenagrated so they needed to be re wrapped for transportation. I had only large pieces of burlap that needed to be cut into four pieces.

after this task the knife was getting dull. Now I know what you're thinking, burlap is filthy and kills edges. This is true but I have had steels stand up to this challenge with ease. Later on in the day I had to load a truck for a planting we had the next day. I had to tie up a alot of plants and tie them down to truck so quite a bit of hemp rope was cut.After the truck was loaded and tied down the vg10 had lost what I would call a workable edge.

my conclusion with this steel is I think it would hold up fine for me on my days off but it wont be coming back with me to work. Will it keep me from getting some new designed knives that use this steel, possible.

Now for the overall ergos of the knife,they are simply beautiful. I love the way it fits my hand. The frn is lightwieght yet strong.it disappears in your pocket yet has a long enough blade for most tasks. If you are thinking about buying a delica I say get it just make sure its the british racing green zdp one

 

[gooeytek]

That's good to know, thanks for putting it out there in a hard-use outdoor situation. I've only used Japanese VG-10 in kitchen knives, and they are excellent for prep work and make for fine slicers.

 

[Taonari]

I'm sorry to hear of the performance of VG-10. I've not put my Delicas through that much cutting at one time and aside from opening cartons with it haven't really done anything to lose the edge. I agree that the ergonomics are supreme with the FRN handle and the weight is amazing. I wouldn't call it a work knife, but it makes one heck of general purpose EDC.

 

[vwb563]

Just curious Spydusse but what were the steels that you have used that kept a good working edge? I agree with you about the VG10. It doesn't seem to me to keep it's edge very long, not really any longer than say AUS8A.

 

[spydusse]

Xhp,zdp,20cp,cpm154(did a review on a cpm154 blur on ESEE forums page doing similar cutting) all have handled this task fine. I actually cut up the same amount of burlap with xhp and used that knife for a whole week after(mostly alot of 2ply twine cutting) before It needed to be sharpened. S30 will keep a working edge after dicing upp burlap as well but its shaving edge is easily gone after cutting up alot of burlap. I find burlap takes out a working edge alot fastier then 2ply hemp twine

 

[brownshoe]

I have a few VG10 spyderco knives and one from William Henry. They all perform better than your experience. VG10 is at least as good as cpm154CM. You must have an edge geometry or a heat-treat problem. However, I've never had problems with the heat treat that spyderco's japanese manufacturers use and I have 3. Two have been in use pretty much since VG10 came out about 10 years ago. I keep the edge at 15 degrees, with a 20 degree microbevel using the sharpmaker.

 

[spydusse]

40 degrees no geometry problem ymmv. IMO cpm154 is no slouch and has out preformed my s30 blades in alot of tasks so its not suprising to me it would out do vg10. I am talking about cpm154 not 154cm. Im not saying vg10 is crap its just that burlap is that bad on edges and only the best can handle alot of burlap cutting wich is a common chore at my job. Hope im npt breaking any rules posting this link but check out this review http://www.jungletraining.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4738

 

[jimwalter]

I've never cut burlap but my delica holds its edge very very well It is a little disappointing that it didnt do well for the task

 

[A.L.]

My experiences are good with VG-10. It's not that miraculous steel (but IMO, what is?), but it's among my favorites. It's very easy to sharpen.

 

[unit]

I like VG-10 a lot, but I would predict poor results for a FFG VG-10 blade in a landscaping setting like what appears in the photos. I would file this review under, "it is still a great knife and a great steel...but not for these uses".

Reviews like this are some of the BEST in my opinion. We know that the knife has HEAVY fan fare and deserves it...but it has limitations and it is good to illustrate some of the (reasonable) areas where a knife does not excel.

I often carry a similar Delica, AND another knife that is more suited for these harder tasks. For cutting clean, soft materials, the VG-10 Delica FFG wins a lot of contests.